Business controller

Role purpose: Drive financial planning, performance analysis, and business decision support to improve profitability, efficiency, and governance.

Key responsibilities

Prepare and manage budgets, forecasts, and long-range financial plans.
Deliver monthly management reporting, variance analysis, and KPI dashboards.
Partner with business leaders to provide insights, scenario modeling, and recommendations.
Monitor costs, margins, and operational performance; identify improvement opportunities.
Support month-end close activities, accruals, and financial controls in collaboration with Accounting.
Ensure compliance with internal policies and relevant financial standards; maintain audit-ready documentation.
Improve reporting processes, data quality, and automation across finance tools.

Required skills and qualifications

Financial expertise: budgeting, forecasting, management reporting, and variance analysis.
Analytical skills: strong modeling, problem-solving, and attention to detail.
Business partnering: ability to translate data into actionable insights for stakeholders.
Tools: advanced Excel; experience with ERP and BI/reporting systems.
Communication: clear presentation of financial results to non-finance audiences.

Outcome: Provide timely, accurate insights that enable data-driven decisions and strengthen financial performance.

Introduction

At Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM)

Opens external we are currently looking for a business controller to contribute to our school’s financial and economic strategy, and its planning and control cycle.

As business controller you work for the Business & Project Control department. You are part of a team of five employees and will contribute to the further professionalisation of the team through new vision and developments. The ideal candidate can easily connect with colleagues and communicates well at all levels within the faculty. You take responsibility for identifying and addressing issues. With your analytical skills, your eye for detail and your problem-solving abilities, you quickly see where the priorities lie. You are results-oriented and work towards deadlines without losing sight of relationships. Previous experience in the public sector is a requirement.

RSM is one of the schools of Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) and operates within the framework of EUR’s financial administration and planning and control cycles. As business controller, you liaise frequently with EUR's central administration, and you participate in various meetings and committees to provide RSM’s input into the development of new initiatives. You also cooperate intensively with finance and control colleagues at RSM BV, which is closely aligned with RSM-EUR under the ‘One-School’ principle.

Job description

The role of the business controller is to:

Advise on and implement RSM’s Planning and Control cycle.
Organise and implement the annual budget cycle (budget, prognoses, annual accounts and reporting).
Manage RSM’s financial processes and administrative organisation, and align them with the school’s strategy.
Represent RSM in meetings of EUR's central administration demand management to provide input on quality, quantity and costs of service delivery in the fields of finance, control, risk and procurement.
Give input and coordinate the control measures for externally funded research projects.
Line manage the business and project control unit.
Contribute to the improvement of management information for planning and strategy formulation purposes.

Job requirements

Your experience includes, but is not limited to the following:

A master degree in a relevant field; e.g., business economics, accounting and control, or comparable, with accompanying high level analytical skills.
Demonstrable, high-level knowledge related to developments in business control, accounting, finance, administrative organisation and/or risk management.
A minimum of five years of experience in the field, preferably in a higher education setting and/or in the public domain.
Knowledge of and experience with the rules and financial rules and regulations of national grants and European framework programmes.
Experience with managing teams of finance professionals.
Excellent written and spoken English (C1) and Dutch (C1) for internal and external communications.
Affinity with and an understanding of academics and the academic world.
Hands-on experience in SAP Fico, Purchase to Pay systems and Excel.

As business controller, you:

Have a clear vision on business control and can translate this vision into concrete actions, projects and deliverables for the organisation;
Are in possession of high-level analytical and planning skills;
Achieve results and get things done by being persuasive, decisive and/or diplomatic, depending on what the situation calls for;
Are a good people manager who leads by example, has a hands-on mentality and stimulates development and growth in the team;
Are accurate and have attention to detail;
Have good social skills and the ability to navigate successfully in a complex organisation and with multiple stakeholders;
Are proactive and take initiatives to continuously improve policy and processes; and
Possess excellent advisory skills and can counsel various stakeholders at various levels in the organisation.

Employment conditions and benefits

We offer you an internationally oriented and varied job in an enthusiastic team, with excellent working conditions in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO-NU).

The start date of this position is as soon as possible, but no later than 1 October 2026. This position is for 0.8 fte - 1 fte. The salary is dependent on your experience and knowledge and ranges from a minimum of € 3.546 to a maximum of € 5.538 (scale 10), or a minimum of € 4.728 to a maximum of € 6.433 gross per month (scale 11) on a fulltime basis (38 hours), in accordance with the CAO-NU. The contract is offered for a period of 1 year and can be converted into an employment contract for an indefinite period if suitability is proven and if continued in the same position, if (financial and/or organizational) circumstances remain the same.

Everything else we offer you; you can find below!

Everything you need for a good work-life balance: the option to work from home in consultation with your manager, 41 days of paid leave with a 40 hour contract, 8% holiday pay and an 8.3% end-of-year bonus, and a significant discount on a subscription for our on-campus sports centre
Sustainable, inclusive and diverse work environment with an open culture, where you can be yourself and we pay attention to each other and to the world around us. Make the most of our bicycle budget, or join networks such as Young@EUR
Time and space for your development in the broadest sense: development days and a personal career budget and free access to our university library.
Good pension with ABP that EUR contributes 2/3rds towards, discounts on various collective insurances with Zilveren Kruis Achmea, Loyalis, and Allianz, and compensation for travel, working from home and home internet use.
Are you currently combining your job with parenthood, or do you want to do so in the future? EUR offers partially paid parental leave and fully paid additional birth leave for partners, and our campus features a daycare (daycare not paid for by EUR). Moving to the Netherlands for your job with EUR? Then you may be eligible for the Expat-ruling if you meet the requirements of the Belastingdienst (Dutch tax agency), and with our Dual Career Programme we will also help your partner find the right job for them.

Employer

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) is an internationally oriented university with a strong social orientation in its education and research, as expressed in our mission ‘Creating positive societal impact’. EUR is home to 4.100 academics and professionals and almost 33.000 students from more than 140 countries. Everything we do, we do under the credo The Erasmian Way – Making Minds Matter. We’re global citizens, connecting, entrepreneurial, open-minded, and socially involved. These Erasmian Values function as our internal compass and create EUR’s distinctive and recognizable profile. From these values, with a broad perspective and with an eye for diversity, different backgrounds and opinions, our employees work closely together to solve societal challenges from the dynamic and cosmopolitan city of Rotterdam. Thanks to the high quality and positive societal impact of our research and education, EUR can compete with the top European universities. www.eur.nl.

Faculty / Institute / Central service

Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) is one of Europe’s top-ranked business schools. RSM provides ground-breaking research and education furthering excellence in all aspects of management and is based in the international port city of Rotterdam – a vital nexus of business, logistics and trade. RSM’s primary focus is on developing business leaders with international careers who can become a force for positive change by carrying their innovative mindset into a sustainable future. Our first-class range of bachelor, master, MBA, PhD and executive programmes encourage them to become critical, creative, caring and collaborative thinkers and doers. www.rsm.nl

RSM is an equal opportunity employer and explicitly encourages applications from candidates of all genders, ethnicities and nationalities.